ESPN decided that a short, tape-delayed interview with Tiger Woods near his mansion columns was better than no interview — and Lightning Round Tom Rinaldi was the first and obvious choice to conduct the interview, the WWL said.

According to ESPN's Josh Krulewitz, the potential for an on-air Tiger chat was floated earlier this week and Rinaldi was informed on Friday that he was selected to do the interview outside Wood's home . "Rinaldi made total sense, since he's covered and interviewed Tiger extensively over the years, " Krulewitz said. " Our key things were no topics were off limits and we chose the interviewer — we prepared accordingly knowing we only had 5 minutes." (Rinaldi did ask about 20 questions in that timeframe, sometimes comically interrupting Woods several times to cram as much in as he could.)